Once Rex saw that the guard was pointing his gun toward him, he raised his hands in sign of surrender.
"Hey, hold on; I’m not trying to do anything dangerous. I just want to make a deal with you that’ll make you get a good amount of credits, and without doing anything too complicated, what do you say?"
The guard thought for a few seconds before putting down his gun.
"Say, what is the deal? I won’t let you leave, just so you know; after all, there’s not enough credits in the whole galaxy that could make me bet my head on; after all, what use are the credits if I can’t enjoy them?"
Rex then lowered his hands and began to touch his left arm device, accessing his bank account. Once on his bank account, he walked up to the guard and flashed the credits.
"This 300k credits I have is the payment; all I want is for you to go this direction; I’m transferring you right now; there lives an Aquarian grandma, and all you have to do is tell her to take care of the bald kid, and that’s it, easy credits for you, right?
The eyes of the guard widened when he saw the 300k credits. As that amount was a lot, since he could only gain 30k credits per year, these 300k credits were the savings of 5 years of Rex that he was saving to buy himself a cybernetic upgrade, but saving the kid of his best friend was more important than the credits right now.
"All you want me to do is tell the grandma this message?"
Rex nodded slightly.
"Yeah, that’s all you have to do. I’ve transferred her 150k credits that she’ll pay you when you get there with her and deliver the message."
Then, Rex transferred the 150k credits to the guard and joined the line to the transport ship, where Carlos was also going. He thought that calling it a transport ship was too big of a praise since it was only a big empty area inside of it, without anything else. Rex then started looking for Carlos.
Once he had located his unconscious friend, he lay down next to him on the floor and let out a deep sigh.
("And there goes my cybernetic hands upgrade, at least I know that the kid is going to be safe with grandma, I have no idea how long we’re going to travel, so I better take a nap. Later I’ll provide the grandma’s bank account number to this damned bald, and I am not going to pay to his son all of my life, not like he is a beautiful and hot single mom, damn.")
Cybernetic upgrades had been around for 2,000 years now and were a tech that anyone could buy. Anything you could think of, from legs that could let you fly to arms that could become miniguns to even boob guns, was out on the market. There was no limit to the imagination on these things.
Normal cybernetic implants were open for all the public to buy, while those of military use could be found on dark markets across the galaxy or with your smuggler of trust. If you could even trust a smuggler, those guys could even cheat a cookie from a baby and sell it back to the mom.
There’s also a special type of upgrade called bionics. Only nobles or high military posts could enjoy those types of upgrades, since even one bionic eye could cost 500 million credits. They were costly since it was bio-technology that could change the organs and make them half organic, half machine.
It took 8 hours of travel from this world to the new one with the wormhole jumping technology developed 300 years ago that was now of common use for medium-size ships and bigger. Since there were not even windows on this transport ship, nobody inside could tell when they arrived.
That was until the door of the transport ship started to open. Rex could feel the hot air coming inside the cargo bay, where everybody was. Thanks to the residential dome, the oxygen one needs to live here was optimal for those who needed it; other races were just using their own atmospheric suits.
The guards of the company that escorted the transport ships here began to make everyone get out of them. It was when Rex stepped outside the transport ship that he realized their company wasn’t the only one to send workers here, but many other ships were also dispatched with different company emblems onto the landing zone.
"Those of Duotherm Omega Company, this way! Don’t get lost; we won’t be responsible for an accidental death on the landing zone. Now come follow me."
The one speaking was a tall man of dark skin with the usual guard combat suit; behind him were the other 20 more armed guards to prevent rebellion of any kind. Like this, everyone followed the man up until they arrived at a big open space.
"Now I will give the orders the higher-ups sent me: those of rank 6 are to be miners and are to live in the residential area, and those of rank 5 are to be new recruits for the guard and are to live on headquarters residential; thats all; those of rank 5 follow me, and those of rank 6 go with this guy here."
Rex gave Carlos a pat on the back to cheer him up.
"Well, since I am rank 5, I will go to this side. I will see you later, my bald friend. Don’t forget to send Grandma credits for the expenses of taking care of you, kid."
Once Rex was about to leave, Carlos spoke with him.
"Wait Rex!, I just wanted to thanks you for all you did back there to help my kid, I know that those credits means a lot to you, and I will pa-"
He had not even finished saying it when Rex interrupted him.
"Wait a second; don’t you even dare say that. I gave those credits on a voluntary basis; if you want to pay me, then let’s search for a tavern with the worse name tomorrow once our shift is done, and you will pay since I have 0 credits right now. Sounds good?."
The warm smile that Rex was giving Carlos right now was a safe haven from all of this that was happening, and after hearing these words from his best friend, he wanted to cry, but he just manned up and joined hands with him, making the promise to drink tomorrow at night.
Like this, they left to their places. Rex could notice that this world had a sun and 2 moons that were so big that you could see them without difficulty from the colony. This colony, like any other mining colony, was made full of metals, and you could see pipes everywhere releasing smoke from time to time.
While usual holographic company ads were being transmitted, together with the news of the colony, it didn’t take him long to reach the guard headquarters of the Duotherm Omega company: it was a big building situated in the northeast part of the colony.
After he entered the hall, he was taken to a 4-by-4 room in which he would be obliged to live from that day on.
("Well, it could be worse; at least I was in luck and got a room with a window.")
He opened the window of his room, undressed from his formal office worker clothes, and sprang onto the bed, which was as hard as a rock. Now he was clutching at his chest area from the jolt with the hard bed.
In fact, he did not take long to sleep; after 5 hours of sleep, he was awakened by an alarm installed in his room, which meant that it was about time his shift started, and he had to head to the barracks to put himself together, and so he did that while dragging his still sleepy legs towards the barracks.
There, he was given an electronic key with the number of the armory locker he had been assigned to. Once he walked towards his locker and opened it, he could see a black guard uniform with usual guard chest armor and helmet, and there lay an electric rifle.
The electric rifles were a new military technology capable of firing bullets without using gunpowder, an achievement that was to be twice as fast and twice as strong as a regular rifle. It took Rex just about 10 minutes to be fully armed and ready for the start of his shift.
It was common that the colony guards weren’t even trained in the use of weaponry or other kinds of military training. Since the companies didn’t care what the guards in the godforsaken colony did, they only cared that they comply with their material orders.
Since this was the first time for Rex here, he walked toward the guy in charge of the armory to ask for a little advice.